Democrats’ Sit-In Leads to Unusual Friday Agenda in House: Nothing

As a tumultuous week on Capitol Hill draws to a close, the important scheduling note about Friday is something that is not happening — a Friday session of the House of Representatives.

Because of the blowup between the Democrats who took over the House floor and the Republicans who were angry about it, Speaker Paul D. Ryan adjourned the House abruptly early Thursday morning and let his members leave town while Democrats raged on. That meant Friday’s scheduled legislative action was postponed.

The scheduling change was significant since Republicans would have liked to have had another day of work, as lawmakers will be out of session in the House until after the Fourth of July.

The victim of the cancellation was a Separation of Powers Restoration Act, a bill that tries to reassert congressional prerogatives over the executive branch. As it turns out, the powers that needed to be separated were House Republicans and Democrats; so that bill will have to wait awhile.